Iceland

MELBOURNE: India ranks a lowly 143rd on a global peace index, lagging way behind the likes of Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with Iceland emerging as the most peaceful nation in the world. According to the nonprofit Institute for Economics and Peace, Iceland, the thinly populated island in the midst of the North Atlantic has retained its place as the most peaceful country in the world. The institute released its Global Peace Index for 2015 recently, which...

REYKJAVIK: Iceland has protested at a five-nation accord to ban unregulated fishing around the North Pole and says it will not be bound by the deal. The foreign ministry in Reykjavik on Thursday hauled in the ambassadors of the five countries that sealed the July 16 agreement -- the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark on behalf of Greenland , and Norway. Iceland -- which did not take part -- "is... not bound by this declaration," the government said in a statement.

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday gave its approval for signing of Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPA) with Iceland and Brunei. The agreements are aimed at increasing investments between the countries, Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters after a meeting of the Union Cabinet. He said the agreements would be for a period of 10 years.

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday entered into an agreement with Iceland for cooperation in development of new and renewable energy technologies. The MoU signed by New and Renewable Energy Ministry also envisages cooperation for development of systems, sub-systems, devices, components and monitor and evaluation of cooperation activities, an official statement said. The memorandum follows a delegation led by Minister of New and Renewable Energy Vilas...

By Rashmi Hemrajani Along haul destination requires adequate planning and zest to embark on it. This doesn't mean that it's only for the welltravelled, it is actually for people who enjoy the anxiety and excitement to reach a destination. If you pick the right destination, you can reap the benefits of travelling halfway across the world, as soon as you set foot on foreign shores. Imagine surfing on the gorgeous turquoise waters of Hawaii, or watching whales...

MELBOURNE: India ranks a lowly 143rd on a global peace index, lagging way behind the likes of Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with Iceland emerging as the most peaceful nation in the world. According to the nonprofit Institute for Economics and Peace, Iceland, the thinly populated island in the midst of the North Atlantic has retained its place as the most peaceful country in the world. The institute released its Global Peace Index for 2015...

DEHRADUN: Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson today showered praise on Uttarakhand, saying the state is endowed with great natural beauty and has tremendous scope for power generation and tourism. Currently on a three-day visit to the hill state, Grimsson met Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and expressed his desire to come again to Uttarakhand and explore the possibilities of collaborations between Iceland and the state in hydropower and tourism sectors. ...

REYKJAVIK: Iceland has protested at a five-nation accord to ban unregulated fishing around the North Pole and says it will not be bound by the deal. The foreign ministry in Reykjavik on Thursday hauled in the ambassadors of the five countries that sealed the July 16 agreement -- the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark on behalf of Greenland , and Norway. Iceland -- which did not take part -- "is... not bound by this declaration," the government said in a statement.

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund said Sunday it planned to release the fifth installment of an Iceland aid package late this year or early next year, noting the country's economy was further stabilizing. The IMF agreed in November 2008 to lend Iceland up to 2.1 billion dollars in an effort to stave off the collapse of the local economy, which was hard-hit by the global financial crisis. In September, the Washington-based lending...

REYKJAVIK: Ratings agency Moody's improved its outlook on Iceland's debt from "negative" to "stable" on Friday, after the IMF approved a much-contested 160-million-dollar loan to the country, ending months of political bickering. "The change of outlook was driven by the improvement in Iceland's external liquidity due to the restoration of financing from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and Nordic governments," Moody's said in a statement. The...

REYKJAVIK: Iceland's government today said that it would buy a 75 per cent stake in the country's third-largest bank Glitnir, a temporary move to ease the bank's liquidity woes and aid the banking sector. "The government, through the intermediation of the Central Bank of Iceland, will provide Glitnir with equity amounting to 600 million euros (about USD 860 million) and will own 75 per cent of shares in Glitnir," the Prime Minister's office said in a statement. ...

DESTINATION : Iceland Movie : Secret Life of Walter Mitty The sequence : In the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty , Walter ( Ben Stiller ) is the ultimate daydreamer until he steps out of being 'zoned out' and into a rollercoaster adventure. A still from Secret Life of Walter Mitty THINGS TO DO Grundarfjordur : This striking area, on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, is dominated by Mount Kirkjufell, which you...

Iceland lies on two tectonic plates, the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate. There are places where you can see the continental rift and even walk across a bridge connecting the two continental plates. Iceland is truly the land of fire and ice. The landscape is like the moon, no trees just volcanic rock. The water in the taps is naturally hot from underground thermal springs and has a very strong smell of sulphur. The cold water in the taps is from natural melt from the...

By Sarah Zhang, Gawker Media This morning, the closely watched Baroarbunga volcano in Iceland officially went from rumbling to erupting under the ice. The Icelandic Met Office has already issued a red alert for planes, but it's unlikely to turn into a repeat of the flight cancellation shitshow of 2010-thanks to better science about volcanic ash. Whether a volcano will erupt quietly or shut down down all of Europe's aviation depends...

LONDON: In what could come as a scary deja vue for Europe's aviation industry, intense seismic tremors have been recorded at Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano for the past three days. Even though Iceland's seismological readings don't confirm an imminent eruption, the Met Office have recorded the strongest earthquake in the region since 1996 on Monday. This had made the country raise the risk level to the aviation industry to orange — the fourth level on a five-level...

By Rashmi Henriques How many of us do extensive research before planning our next holiday? Most of us, would nod our heads. The only boring part of research is that, the same old destinations crop up. Here is a bit of a gamechanger, how about exploring the unexplored. Visit Bucharest in Romania, which is full of French palaces with baroque clam-shaped canopies. Reykjavik in Iceland is best for tourists seeking village innocence combined with big-city zeal. While visiting...

REYKJAVIK: More than a year and a half after Iceland's major banks failed, all but sinking the country's economy, police have begun rounding up a number of top bankers while other former executives and owners face a two-billion-dollar lawsuit. Since Iceland's three largest banks -- Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir -- collapsed in late 2008, their former executives and owners have largely been living untroubled lives abroad. But the...

NEW DELH: The Union Cabinet on Friday approved an agreement to launch air services between India and Iceland. The agreement would pave the way for establishment of air links between the two countries which would have the right to designate as many airlines as they wish to operate these services, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. The Cabinet also approved renewal of the agreement with Shastri Indo-Canadian...

REYKJAVIK: Iceland's private sector is running out of cash to repay its foreign currency debt , according to the nation's central bank. Non-krona debt owed by entities besides the Treasury and the central bank due through 2018 totals about 700 billion kronur ($5.8 billion), the bank said on Tuesday. The projected current account surpluses over the next five years aren't estimated to reach even half of that and will equal a shortfall of about 20 per cent of gross domestic product.

Edward Snowden , the ex-CIA worker who revealed a secret US electronic surveillance programme, says he likes Hong Kong's independence and free speech. He may be about to learn about its extradition deal with the US. The 29-year-old American, a former technical assistant for the CIA , provided the information to journalists and revealed his identity voluntarily, according to a video interview posted on the website of the UK's Guardian newspaper. Snowden, an...